Experience our world: as it was, as it is, as it might become with these audiobooks about history, the arts, culture, education, and politics. Don't miss Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, or Fresh Air with Terry Gross: Writers, or Gwen Ifill's The Breakthrough.
Exhaustively researched and elegantly written by one of the nation's leading education law scholars, Five Miles Away, A World Apart ties together, like no other book, a half-century's worth of education law and politics into a coherent, if disturbing, whole. It will be of interest to anyone who has ever wondered why our schools are so unequal and whether there is anything to be done about it. Learn More
Five Nickels is the true story of Captain Steve Phillis, a decorated Air Force A-10 fighter pilot killed under heroic circumstances while trying to save his downed wingman on their thirtieth Desert Storm combat mission. Learn More
Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa. Learn More
Founding Director Lonnie Bunch's deeply personal tale of the triumphs and challenges of bringing the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture to life. His story is by turns inspiring, funny, frustrating, quixotic, bittersweet, and above all, a compelling listen. Learn More
This first comprehensive history of America's lottery obsession explores the spread of state lotteries and how players and policymakers alike got hooked on wishful dreams of an elusive jackpot. Learn More
A Library Journal Best Audiobooks of the Year Winner
When you look at the actual science, there’s more hope for marriage than superficial media coverage of divorce rates would indicate. Parker-Pope shares some of that science for both successful couples who want to stay that way and troubled couples who want to turn their marriage around. Learn More
Val McDermid is one of the finest crime writers we have, whose novels have captivated millions of readers worldwide with their riveting narratives of characters who solve complex crimes and confront unimaginable evil. In the course of researching her bestselling novels, McDermid has become familiar with every branch of forensics, and now she uncovers the history of this science, real-world murders, and the people who must solve them. Learn More
This is the story of that first, forgotten creed, and the world of its begetting, a world in which foreigners were feared, slaves were human chattel, and men questioned whether women were really human after all. Learn More
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes listeners on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Learn More
by Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, & Jay Lawrence Westbrook; read by Suzie Althens
In this classic analysis of hard-pressed families, the authors discover that financial stability for many middle-class Americans is all too fragile. The authors consider the changing cultural and economic factors that threaten financial security and what they imply for the future vitality of the middle class. Learn More
by Ilana Yurkiewicz, MD; read by Ilana Yurkiewicz, MD
An award-winning physician-writer exposes how pervasive cracks in the health care system cost us time, energy, and lives—and how we can fix them. Learn More
A wholly original history of France, filled with a lifetime's knowledge and passion―by the author of the New York Times bestseller Parisians. Learn More
From civil rights to Ferguson, Franchise reveals the untold history of how fast food became one of the greatest generators of black wealth in America. Learn More
When he died in 1930 aged twenty-six, Frank Ramsey had already invented one branch of mathematics and two branches of economics, laying the foundations for decision theory and game theory. Had he lived he might have been recognized as the most brilliant thinker of the century. For the first time Cheryl Misak tells the full story of his extraordinary life. Learn More
A story of transgression in the face of religious ideology, a racist and sexist scientific establishment, and political resistance to securing women's right to vote. Learn More
In Free to Move, Ilya Somin explains how broadening opportunities for foot voting can greatly enhance political liberty for millions of people around the world. Learn More
Highlighting forgotten Black and white civil rights pioneers and weaving in the story of the author's own great-grandfather's crimes as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Freedom on Trial tells a gripping story of a moment pregnant with promise when race relations in the United States might have taken a dramatically different turn. Learn More
